Cybercrime Week in Review 29 August 2015

Chinese spies target US intellectual property (CSO)
The U.S. economy is losing hundreds of billions of dollars each year to economic espionage, mainly from China, experts say. Some of the problem is political, but plenty of it is due to a ‘stupefying’ lack of security

The Ashley Madison hack…in 2 minutes (CNN Money)
The hackers have also released financial information about the company that runs it, Avid Life Media, and the emails of its CEO. The hackers say they aren’t done yet.

Combating DDoS defence buck passing: Nexusguard (ZDNet)
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) defence is a grey area in Australian cyber security, with cloud providers and businesses juggling the responsibility of eradicating the vulnerability, according to DDoS defence firm, Nexusguard.

DDoS Attacks Against Banks Increasing (Bank Info Security)
Three years after leading U.S. banking institutions were targeted by waves of distributed denial-of-service attacks waged against them by the hacktivist group known as Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters, DDoS attacks have continued to grow in number and magnitude.

FBI: $1.2B Lost to Business Email Scams (Krebs on Security)
The FBI today warned about a significant spike in victims and dollar losses stemming from an increasingly common scam in which crooks spoof communications from executives at the victim firm in a bid to initiate unauthorized international wire transfers. According to the FBI, thieves stole nearly $750 million in such scams from more than 7,000 victim companies in the U.S. between October 2013 and August 2015.

In other Security News…

Unsurprisingly, it was announced that Noel Biderman, CEO of Ashely Madison’s parent company Avid Life Media, is bidding farewell to the extramarital affairs service. “This change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and our dedicated employees,” read the statement. The announcement comes after the third data dump, which included a series of emails suggesting that at one point, Avid Life Media may have gained access to the entire user base of a competing company. Ironic?

According to reports, the ISIS hacker who was responsible for exposing the personal information of hundreds of U.S. military and government personnel has been killed in a drone strike. USA Today reported the hacker, identified as Junaid Hussain, was pinpointed in a “targeted strike” near the Syrian city of Raqqa. This escalation against the perpetrator of cyber attacks could be a game changer, explained Tripwire Sr. Security Researcher Ken Westin. “Those conducting these attacks have usually felt immune to the effects of physical war but now, these actors realize they can be targets of drones and other strikes,” he said.

The FBI has issued a warning to U.S. companies of a significant increase in sophisticated scams linked to fraudulent wire transfers. The agency said that businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or regularly performing wire transfer payments should be on the lookout for potential email account compromises through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques. The Internet Crime Complaint Center reported the unauthorized transactions have amounted to an estimated loss of more than $1.2 billion dollars, impacting over 8,000 victims.

British police announced the arrest of six people as part of a multi-agency operation targeting users of the tool LizardStresser – a DDos-on-demand service offered by the infamous hacking group known as Lizard Squad, who was responsible for taking down the networks of XBox Live and PlayStation last Christmas. According to the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, organizations believed to have been targeted by the suspects include a leading national newspaper, a school and a number of online retailers.

Agora – one of the biggest online underground marketplaces known for facilitating the sell of drugs, weapons, as well as stolen personal and financial information – has announced that it’s “pausing” operations as a result of security concerns. In a statement, Agora said recent research had revealed vulnerabilities in Tor’s Hidden Services protocol, which could deanonymize server locations. Administrators said a solution is currently “in the works,” however, it will likely take time to implement and bring the site back online.

According to Microsoft, Windows 10 now has over 75 million installs less than one month after its big debut. But although there’s been much buzz about its new capabilities, some features have raised concerns over users’ privacy. Forbes reported some users claim that Windows 10 keylogs what you type and sends it back to Microsoft servers. Regardless, there are a number of ways to opt out of some of its data-collecting features.